Jet Went Down on Anniversary of TWA Flight 800 Crash

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This file photo shows ground crew stand near a Malaysia Airlines aircraft on the tarmac at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in Sepang, Malaysia, Tuesday, May 27, 2014.

Updated at 4:19 PM PST on Thursday, Jul 17, 2014

The Malaysian airliner crash in eastern Ukraine on Thursday came on the 18th anniversary of another huge aviation disaster. TWA Flight 800 exploded midair and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off Long Island on July 17, 1996, killing all 230 people on board. Investigators determined the likely cause was a spark igniting vapors in a fuel tank, but many conspiracy theories about the disaster have persisted, including claims that it was brought down by a missile.